The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of Geranium, botanically known as Pelargonium hortorum Bailey, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Eclipse Salmon Orange. The new cultivar is a hybrid seedling resulting from a controlled crossing of an orange flowered dark leaf seed parent and an orange flower pollen parent selected from our collection of plants maintained at our nursery at Gilroy, Calif. for breeding purposes.
This new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program intended to create new Geranium cultivars with salmon orange colored flowers, semi-double flower form, dark green foliage, vigorous growth and superior cutting productivity.
The new cultivar was developed in 1988 at the Company nursery at Gilroy, Calif. and has been repeatedly asexually reproduced by cuttings in Gilroy, Calif. and in Guatemala over a two year period. It has also been trialed at Okemos, Mich. and in each case it has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive generations and this novelty appears to be firmly fixed.